Quest is releasing vWorkspace ThinShell version 2.5 beta. ThinShell 2.0 was released last year as a shell replacement for older Windows PCs and thin clients. This allows organizations to transform their existing PCs into thin-behaving clients or to simplify a thin client deployment.

ThinShell accomplishes this by replacing the windows shell with its own much slimmer shell interface. Users power on their access device, are prompted for a user name and password and are then presented with their virtual workspace. Easy as pie. But that is just one example of the many use cases for ThinShell, there are others listed in the ThinShell Admin Guide. But I'm sure you can invent more. If so, let us know here.

With this release we are giving ThinShell a face lift and providing better platform support, among other advancements. Here's a preview:

In addition to the new look we have added some other features. The full list follows:

New User Interface - We have added a sleek, new interface to ThinShell making it easier to use and more configurable. In addition to the new look, the new interface allows administrators to control which options the end users can see and use.

Support for Windows 7 and WES - ThinShell has added support for Windows 7 and Windows Embedded Standard 7.

Password Manager support - ThinShell users can now change their domain password using the ThinShell interface.

Command Line Configuration - The location of the ThinShell Settings XML file can now be set at runtime using command line switches.

Legal Notice - ThinShell now can prompt the end user with a notification before a connection is made to the virtual workspace.

We are targeting a full release of ThinShell in early Q2, so keep an eye out for future notifications here on the community.

Please leverage the community if you have any questions or feedback regarding this release. And since this is a Beta release it will not be supported by Quest.

Lastly, I would recommend that anyone trying this beta first read the release notes.